i'm sam saxon for tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. remember last week when we got news that the economy shrank in the fourth quarter of two thousand and twelve well in just a moment in answer to why the economy shrank and why it could be an ominous sign that the deal our nation made with the devil several generations ago is about to come due and later it looks like the republican scheme to rig the electoral college had failed but now republicans in pennsylvania are trying something new i'll tell you what it is and what impact it could have on the next presidential election and finally in tonight's daily take why is the n.r.a. making enemies list.

and we begin tonight with the deal a deal of the united states made a long time ago that is sealed our nation's fate today see german folklore tells a story of a man named faust he was bored with his life as a scholar and he was seeking unlimited knowledge power and pleasure so he made a deal with the devil to attain all of those things but in return foulest agreed to give the devil his soul at the end of twenty four years this is where the term a fallacy in bargain comes from it refers to someone willing to sacrifice their moral integrity just to attain power and pleasure for a limited time got it. well that brings us to the united states the most powerful and wealthiest nation on the planet today we have a military bigger than the next seventeen top military nations combined and in terms of total wealth well the united states towards the rest of the world unfortunately though just like foulest all of this power and wealth did not come honestly it came as a result of a bargain

a bargain with the devil of war the father of the constitution himself james madison warned early on by saying quote no nation can preserve can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare but as soon as world war two the supposed war to end all wars ended the united states got involved in the continual warfare game first there was an increasing war spending for korea and then to ensure that global capitalism brain supreme to enrich the all of our class of bankers corporate executives and oil barons our military intervened all around the world throughout the one nine hundred fifty s. meddling in places like iran guatemala indonesia president eisenhower knew the consequences of this faustine bargain with the devil of war and how will us away from within as he said it is one nine hundred fifty three across the veyron speech quote every gun that is made every warship launched every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and who are not dead those who are cold and are not

closed. all that was during a time when our nation was spending roughly fifty billion dollars a year on defense we spend almost twenty times that today but eisenhower did little to renegotiate the terms of this deal which is why he used his nine hundred sixty one farewell address to warn about the rise of the military industrial complex but our lawmakers didn't listen to eisenhower and then the vietnam war plus more covert wars in south america asia and the middle east the one nine hundred sixty s. in one thousand nine hundred seventy s. the pentagon's annual spending jump to nearly two hundred billion dollars during the one nine hundred eighty s. spending again increased thanks to more covert operations and high tech missile defense boondoggle like star wars military spending in that decade increased nearly three hundred fifty billion dollars the same time taxes were slashed and spending on social programs was cut in the soviet union fell in defense spending leveled off in the one nine hundred ninety s. but the perpetual war machine continued to grind on it was desert storm and iraq

military intervention in kosovo airstrikes in sudan another bombing raid on iraq to close out the decade and then george w. bush moved into the white house nine eleven happened and then this happened to military spending they went up went up a lot to new wars were started in a brand new covert drone warfare program was unleashed all across the planet our defense budget tripled under bush and then obama we now spend upwards of a trillion dollars every year to maintain this deal with the devil of war we have between seven hundred and one thousand military bases of all sizes and purposes on the planet they include massive installments like for space in afghanistan and small secret facilities in africa used primarily to launch drones or defense and war spending that we have ninety four percent of all federal income tax revenue that means almost every single dollar that you and i and everyone else in this country pay income taxes goes to supporting this massive military empire not education not health care not infrastructure but instead war and then return the

billionaire. classes profited immensely with oil and shipping lanes wide open in favorable business deals in foreign markets but within the united states is rotting and this faustine deal is sunsetting we learned last week that the american economy contracted by point one percent in the fourth quarter despite the fact that overall consumption in the economy grew by two point two percent our economy shrank because the war budget shrank by twenty two percent that month and other words when missiles tanks and warplanes that aren't being manufactured our economy runs into trouble as president obama said in his super bowl interview with c.b.s. on sunday. overall there were a lot of positive signs in the economy the big problem was defense spending was cut twenty two percent is the biggest drop in in forty years and it was very abrupt and it had to do with. you know folks being worried about the possible impacts of the fiscal cliff and what goes on here in washington was that he was so much of our economy dependent on perpetual war we officially have

a war economy which means we must continue this endless war or suffer suffer further economic ruin beyond what we're already experiencing beyond the rampa joblessness declining wages and spiraling budget deficits on the local state and federal level. but drive around the washington d.c. suburbs in virginia and you'll see enormous palaces built in gated communities where the war profiteers reside in two thousand and eleven these are the five biggest war profiteers took home a profit of thirteen point four billion dollars they've been the real winners in this falsehood and bargain and it's difficult to rectify this wealth across the potomac with the desperation across america yes we have acquired our enormous wealth and power for the few but the day when we must hand over our national soul as part of this fallacy and bargain is quickly approaching do we really want to be a devilish empire that brings carnage to the rest of the world where own population at home suffers we know how that story ends and ends in collapse it always has been throughout every empire in history so then how do we break this deal how do we take

on the military industrial complex that james madison enjoyed eisenhower warned us about let's ask my next guest joining me are james lewis communications director of the center for arms control and nonproliferation and spokesperson for council for a livable world and the all mccabe senior writer at human events online and editor the guns and patriots welcome welcome us your sense of coming back and seeing it simply isn't how to be the spokesman for carnage and devilish partisan that's a that's why we bring you on the show every day so let's let's start we've got this sequester coming down the pike at the end of the month in march this is going to cut roughly a half trillion dollars out of the pentagon budget james is this a good start i mean can we let these cuts go through and do we actually need to go with more cuts down the road you know what the most important thing that has come out in all of this discussion is everyone's replayed the admiral role in quote that our national debt is not a lady our greatest national security risk we need to start looking at ways of

paying down our deficit and everything has to be on the table including pentagon spending we need to be looking at ways to reshape the pentagon that don't reflect a cold war ideology we're facing new threats and new enemies that we've never faced before. as opposed to a soviet union which we needed a nuclear stockpile to defend against those things are no longer needed and they're extremely expensive and this thought that these things create jobs nuclear weapons sit in silos and tanks sit in facilities that are mouth balled they don't actually create any jobs near what exactly is of the threat that the united states is facing that justifies a spending more on our military than the next seventeen nations combined well i think that. you know i think secretary panetta you know made that point for us on the sunday shows when he said you know listen you know we knew that benghazi was having some trouble but it was seven hours away and we couldn't do anything about it and so if we have

a military there it's not just you know the shores of the united states the united states is asked to defend their friends and allies around the world there are people around the world that are looking to the united states for protection and help and so we have because of those up like there's a lot of oppressed people who are looking at the united states to as someone who is occupying their countries dropping dro s. all across the middle east. where we need where all all across some ok afghanistan has been occupied for the better part of a decade iraq remains occupied and has been for the better part of a decade and you could see that in the sense of having drones flying above the skies in several countries were basically occupying those countries as well because you can launch a military strike on them on just someone driving down the road within an hour well i mean sure but that drone is not the same as occupation i would argue and i will remind you that afghanistan was a place where it was launched against the united states and is the policy of the

government to make sure that afghanistan a particularly difficult place is no longer a place where we can launch attacks and there's a program underway to extricate ourselves from that we can argue whether that's being done well and decade of war has necessarily. this is the time we went on the look there's no time limit on a war but the most important thing here is you know these are a new type of threat than we've ever faced we're never going to see again attack coming we're likely to see an attack coming from a massive superpower we need to be investing in these types of programs and we're couldn't allow a spending our money on other than defense there's a top of the i mean the defense you need more invent sam we with the benghazi attacks we can look at investing in our diplomatic service corps which is a separate part part of the second part under the purview of the secretary of defense that's responsible for keeping our diplomats safe that's something that severely underfunded the department of state is incredibly underfunded they spend money on comics and they comics coming to visit you're big on electric cars the big

deficit hawk yeah that's your huge deficit hawk how can you possibly say that enormous defense budget in which oprah's of a trillion dollars is going to every single year has nothing to do with our deficit or should be told you're going to do so now and in fact i thought you were spot on when you were saying earlier you know about the fact that the if that the effect that the defense spending has on the economy obviously you know we have to look at it obviously there are things that can be cut but the idea that we don't need the capability to protect ourselves and to protect our friends is absurd and remember too and i know you want to make another point the most expensive thing is people who are irreplaceable you take a sergeant who's been in for fifteen twenty years you take a navy seal or any of these people that we've trained and they're ready to go you can't replace them the way you can replace a tank and they're probably fifty sixty percent of our defense budget. the best thing to do is not put them in a situation where we're going to have to replace that james. well i think this is

you know i wasn't expecting to agree with neal but i think you know we're good friends yeah you know we need to spend smarter on what we're doing we need to be smarter about what we're spending i know the counsel for the. coalition for fiscal responsibility which included several former joint chiefs of staff ran full page ads in the city saying that we can decrease the amount that we spend make ourselves safer if we do it smartly and that's the task we've got to make sure that we're investing in the right things and not investing in the wrong things and that involves us a completely reshaping the way we do business i was willing to say was fairly reasonable time second class there's probably a ton of spending in the navy on these biofuels and other crazy sort of solar schemes that we could probably cut completely forget about the fact of the strange thing that renewable energy is that yeah sure you still believe in more of the james less but our guys are what are you. i'll give you the

after the break i'll give you the latest on the g.o.p. election rigging campaign coming up next. the government no longer represents the people. the people the term. the way our economic system.

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. for a nation to rule today. so

if at first you don't succeed at reading an election then tried tried try again in two thousand and twelve we saw all billionaires like sheldon adelson and the koch brothers spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy our elections trying to put in place a conservative house conservative senate conservative white house that would do their bidding we also saw republican lawmakers do their part with new voter i.d. laws and cuts to early voting hours these efforts succeeded to make minorities and democratic voters wait much longer lines on election day than whites and republican voters but ultimately ultimately these efforts came up short president obama stayed in the white house the democratic majority in the senate actually got bigger and republican house candidates received more than a million fewer votes nationwide than democratic house candidates and they were only able to keep the majority in the house republicans that is thanks to

gerrymandering in two thousand and ten so when it comes to election rigging in two thousand and twelve conservatives failed. but they're already back at it again to the amazement of political observers around the nation early on this year republican state lawmakers in several blue states proposed changing how the electoral college gives its electoral votes a change that would give republicans a huge advantage in future presidential elections see rather than a winner take all system republicans one of these electoral college votes handed out based on which candidate wins each individual congressional district in the state that is each individual congressional district in the state that was redrawn by republicans in two thousand and ten so they would be more republican districts than democratic districts under the scheme traditional blue states like pennsylvania which gave president obama all twenty of its electoral college votes last november would actually end up giving a majority of its votes to the republican candidate even if that candidate lost the

popular vote this was such a toxic move on the part of summer republicans that many within the party a media only came out against it including ohio governor john kasich virginia governor bob mcdonald in machine michigan governor rick snyder in a bill to do just this in virginia was defeated in a state senate committee so after a few legislative defeats and several prominent republicans coming out against plans to regulate troll college in these several blue states it looked as they were publicans had come to their senses about about pursuing this blatantly undemocratic tactic to try and steal the election. but republicans in pennsylvania have now said not so fast according to the newcastle news pennsylvania's republican state senate leader dominic pledge he will introduce legislation that divides the state's electoral college votes proportionately based on the popular vote rather than the winner take all system that's currently in place and had this plan been in effect

last november mitt romney would have received eight of pennsylvania's electoral college votes rather than the zero he actually received meanwhile of course all the red states like texas and oklahoma which vote for republicans will keep their winner take all system and while this latest scheme will benefit republicans quite as much as the last team which doled out electoral college votes based on congressional districts it will still make it much more difficult for democrats to win the white house in future elections so now that republicans have shown this willingness to do this a willingness to blatantly rig future elections what should progressives be responding with what needs to be done to fix our broken political system to stop these sort of shenanigans in the future john nichols joins me now he's a washington correspondent at the nation magazine and he's the author of the book uprising john welcome back. it's great to be on with you and a terrific topic to be talking about yeah definitely i want to your opinion on this

i mean you follow this stuff all the time are you surprised that republicans i mean as high up as france priebus the chairman of the r. and c. we're actually endorse and pursue this sort of electoral college rigging scheme. no i'm not look party that has over the last couple years structured all of its political initiatives toward advancing itself as an electoral entity scrapping policy left and right with with one goal and that is to maintain its position in power is it's not surprising that they would be trying to gain the electoral college remember this is a party that tried to push out all sorts of voter id laws trying to get rid of same day registration they've tried to get rid of early voting gamed the system in key swing states around the country long lines so it was very very hard for people of color elderly folks to vote so no this doesn't surprise me and it doesn't surprise

me that we're looking at pennsylvania the two states that they have wanted desperately or pennsylvania and michigan everybody's look at virginia florida and some other places but the reality is they want pennsylvania and michigan because those are two states where they have very can serve the legislature is that are willing to do whatever the marching orders and also where they have gerrymandered biggest tricks so radically that you know on almost any system that they develop they're going to get a lot of electoral votes yeah that's the thing that's really troubling i think is the florida state speaker of the house who said this is basically changing the rules of the game this is unfair we're not going to do this here you know you go in in two thousand and ten you gerrymander the districts and then you want to use those same gerrymandered districts to pick who becomes president this latest proposal out of pennsylvania though kind of gets away from the congressional districts and wants to do it based on popular vote is that something that might be

a little bit more digestible to some or republicans who didn't like the congressional districts name. it was clearly their next gambit and it has a certain appeal except that it runs itself through the most corrupt and immoral of political constructs and that is the electoral college remember they're not really going to distribute the electoral college votes based on popular vote if they were then you'd have a national system where you know i would be very simple we do limit it electoral college and simply say where we got the most votes was elected and if you wanted to even take it down to percentages you'd still do it nationally you can't do it state by state and have some states in some states out because you created a dysfunctional system rewards for the parties that have the ability to change the rules in competitive states no rewards for the parties that don't have the ability to change the rules yeah and i mean if you touch on national popular vote is this is this a strategy that progressive should start pushing for already i think nine states

have passed national missed national popular vote legislation which means they'll just give out all their electoral college votes to whichever person wins the national popular vote so if you get enough states that equal to seventy you've already killed the electoral college because the states will just determined not to appoint but remember if you just do it at the two seventy level then the states that haven't opted in could still kind of pool their votes and then the ones that have opted in are gave it back but it's i like national popular vote but i like it for the reason that their vote the voting reform group has put it forward not really as a construct to actually distribute the votes for president but as a way to show america that it's time to get rid of the electoral college so what i think progressive should be is yes pushing national popular vote saying we want to set up a system where we do some power of the electoral college but alternately in the goal should be

a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college something that richard nixon. and hubert humphrey and bobby kennedy all supported back in the one nine hundred sixty s. we had the left in the right in favor of eliminating the electoral college and anybody who believes in seriously competitive politics should be in favor of that initiative above all definitely that is you know more democracy is a good thing and a popular what is more democracy when it comes down to it let's talk about money in politics here in two thousand and twelve we sold tons of talk about outside money in politics it was the first presidential election after citizens united we saw with karl rove pulling together hundreds of billions of dollars or so sheldon adelson spend more money in the election than any person in history has ever spent and then you know american election but ultimately conservatives didn't do nearly as well as they had hoped they were there was actually a pretty big night for democrats does that fact lesson or i mean does it decrease how important this topic is when it comes to money in politics i mean will people

just forgive and be like oh i guess it didn't have that much effect let's move on. down the least unless you believe that you know we should have stopped or experimenting on airplanes when the wright brothers only got up to thirteen minute or thirteen seconds right when you have a new construct it takes time to put into place the citizens united ruling would allow corporations to free up their treasuries and spend whatever they wanted to buy elections only came down in two thousand and ten this was the first presidential election in which they went into play they were able using super pacs to buy the republican nomination for mitt romney that was an incredible accomplishment they were able also to back up their gerrymandering of congressional districts with huge amounts of money and keep the house of representatives despite the fact that one point four million more people voted democratic and republican so they accomplished quite a bit and anybody that doesn't think that they will refine and hone their methods so that they can accomplish a lot more is

a fool the fact of the matter is barack obama held his own in the presidential race because he raised. as much money and mitt romney but this is an unsustainable structure for progressive progress is have got to focus in ashley and intensity and getting money out of politics is really only one way to do that we spoke just a moment ago about a constitutional ten seconds for the electorate alledge let's have a constitutional amendment to get corporate money out of politics and let's get on it move to a mandatory i like i like your analogy just like the wright brothers who were just learning how to fly with the plane the billionaires are just learning how much money they need to spend and what it takes to rob and steal an election here john nichols thanks so much for coming on. thank you so much good to be with you. thanks.

to me a long and storied history of space exploration mankind has never ever sent a porn star into space but that's all about to change maybe in the spring of next year coco brown who's starred in such hits as a big two and it don't matter just don't buy the hive hopes to become the first adult film star to blast off into space brown is currently in the netherlands training with space x. c. a private company that hopes to make a private space that hopes to make private space travel possible by spring of next year honey love as it is also known by the adult film industry is doling out one hundred thousand dollars of her hard earned dirty money to become one of the first private citizens in space brown has made it clear that she does not plan to have any form of sex while soaring through space she told him post that quote trying to have sex in space is a little difficult especially if you're going to do gee you just really don't have

that much control it's got to be some point in there somewhere. but i can imagine what she's saying though if she's feeling adventurous she may be the first to join the fifty mile high club and if they eventually make a movie out of it is the title of journey to your anus already taken you know. coming up the days of junk food vending machines in our school may be numbered after the department of agriculture and now department of agriculture excuse me announced new rules last week eliminating greasy foods and sugary snacks and drinks in our nation's schools but is this really about keeping american schoolchildren healthy or an example of the state run amuck.

well the british. market. what's really happening to the global economy with. the global financial headlines. are reports.

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it's. so. welcome back to the big picture i'm sam sax in for tom hartman coming up in this half hour obesity is a serious problem in the united states crossing our economy hundreds of billions of dollars every year and worse obesity is affecting kids at a younger and younger age so what is the u.s.

department of agriculture doing now to combat this epidemic and why does it have right wingers crying nanny state. also with the republican great recession still in full swing more and more working americans are having to delay their retirement plans just a little bit tom explains good retirement is just the latest casualty in the billionaire classes war against working people and later what do you jerry seinfeld very manilow in geraldo rivera all have in common i'll give you head they have the same thing in common that organizations like the american federation of teachers and the american medical association all have in common still don't know well it has a little something to do with guns i'll explain more in tonight's. so

the days of junk food vending machines in our schools may be numbered last friday be the department of agriculture unveiled new rules that will prohibit the sale of greasy foods and sugary snacks and drinks in our nation's schools these new rules were acquired by a law passed by congress in two thousand and ten the law was known as the health of the healthy hunger free kids act of two thousand and ten and eight it was aimed at reducing childhood obesity rates according to the rule most snacks sold in school will have to contain less than two hundred calories and drink machines and elam. in middle schools will only be allowed to sell water low fat milk and one hundred percent fruit or vegetable juices this will provide all vending machines it will apply to the alec card lunch lines and it will also apply to any other foods regularly sold around school they will not applied in school fundraisers or bake sales critics of this new rule will have one year to air their grievances with the u.s.d.a. before the rule goes into effect sometime next year but one of its main supporters

iowa senator tom harkin said quote the u.s.d.a. is proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of american children but their bodies as well. but is that the case or is this the nanny state run amok well joining me now is jay the managing editor at reason magazine and reason dot com j.d. welcome to the show. thanks and thanks for having me on so i see this we have a really serious obesity problem in america we've got thirty five percent of adults are obese across our economy about one hundred forty seven billion dollars in health care costs i see this is a pretty reasonable step the government is taking and the kind of fix this problem what do you think. the money is good instantiations i think in this case good intentions are almost literally biting off more than they can share in this case sure is there a bit of obesity problem splintery there certainly is people are on healthy they

don't exercise enough and eat the wrong things very often there are top down policies very rarely have the effects you see in this case dictating to schools that they have to basically make their kids eat better food and the guidelines by and large are pretty good i mean if the intention is that these kids are eating more grains books fruits or vegetables and these are good things i would love to see it happen but when the original implemented these guidelines and school lunches this is an extension of the earlier rules earlier on they applied already to lunches and breakfasts now they're applying them to snacks in schools what they saw was that kids were bolting or throwing away healthy food or throwing the further away they were throwing the vegetables away they were eating the vending machines now the now they have any machine will strike your weight at the end of it and the kids were running around the original school lunch rules well if the kids defied the school lunch rules that they stopped eating lunch as they're throwing away good food putting the food there trying to make them eat it doesn't seem to be the most

effective way to go right well who is also going to clearly i mean clearly this is going to be a process if you have a bunch of unhealthy vending machines and kids are relying on those and suddenly take them out and say ok you're salads kids my revolt there's a study done in two thousand and four looked at sixty three hundred kids and forty states. and they measured these kids' weights and heights when they first centered middle school in two thousand and four and then again when they left middle school three years later and what the study found was that states that had nutrition standards that with strong junk food regulations the kids who left metals middle school saw a three to five point decrease in childhood obesity rates whereas the states that didn't have these sort of regulations it stayed what you'd expect pretty constant. i mean what is unusual is or well this is usually as the reference for that as california but i'd be willing to bet the states that first implemented their own attritional standards were also states that so had its and in six words healthier lifestyles to begin with there would be california make it work making jokes thirty

forty years ago about the healthy lifestyle there about the way people eat if a culture is already at school and eating better you're going to have an easier transition probably don't need so force from the top down if you have a local culture that's not it seems so simply trying to mandate this in d.c. isn't going to change as much as you think you're going to change although it certainly will change the paperwork load for the local schools a regulation that very detailed and they require extremely detailed paperwork or part of people are keeping by local schools they have to comply with a lot of rules probably requiring them to hire compliance officers if you're talking about these local schools hiring of people or else reassigning people to comply with new rules to make kids eat food that at least in many parts of the country they're not voluntarily going into these and they will serve a good end of choice in these kids around as they find their necks and around or around these fields will see what happens there but you keep saying this top down approach i mean is there any other approach we can take to solving this i mean you're a free market guy how how would the free market solve this problem of kids being

addicted to sugar in unhealthy foods in vending machines all around school. the first issue to deal with is persuasion in for the information and also have to recognize that you don't solve an entire problem you have people around and around a country of three hundred million people your parents your families making choices that many of us with would rather they not make we're never going to change all of our minds providing the good information make options available that's a good thing it's not always going to work my kids' school made fresh fruit available as a snack in the school they discontinued that because the for most kids want my i'm glad they made the alternative available homestead but they couldn't make it go they were losing money on the project we had to stop doing what about what about families that are trying to raise their kid to need help it is it a little unfair that here they go they send their kids to school and we our schools are full of this junk food i mean shouldn't our government play a role in setting at least minimum standards so that we're not hampering the

efforts of parents and individual choices who want their kids eat healthier within the school to make healthy food available their kids were raised to choose that probably on with the cues that they're but it isn't a rational agent in the market i mean. they're not rational agents the market however they are equal created the culture that they have a home now where they get a sneak cheetos every now and then i bet they will it's not going to kill they are going to eat by and large with their family but they're comfortable eating with their parents raise them with a family get home if their families are eating fresh vegetables and fresh fruits and lean meats and grains you're going to get a much better chance of that if it's still in the process of school even if unhealthy options are available however if they're raised at home with unhealthy foods the idea that saying the school is suddenly going to change at school when they've got to go home and eat one healthy meals at home you're not going to change the culture that he's so you have to work on acknowledge it's a long term process it's information it's making options available i think it's a good idea but trying to mandate one just on the idea originated there's another

issue with probably the farm subsidies that we can get into another day j.d. thanks a lot for coming i have so little that they have me on. and in other news in the post bush great recession economy it's harder and harder for americans to have a good retirement according to a new survey by the organization conference board two thirds of workers between the ages of forty five and sixty are now planning to delay their retirement that's a big jump from two thousand and ten when only forty two percent of the workers had plans to put off their retirement the economy was supposed to get a little bit better job losses low salaries and declining home values are some of the main reasons why the americans can no longer stick to their retirement plans so in the not too distant future we can all enjoy laying bricks and waiting tables until we're eighty frickin years old but this story also reflects another troubling real reality in america and that's that the outright theft taking place and workplaces all across this nation retirement pensions wages benefits and even

freedom of speech have all been stolen from workers at their jobs also that corporate executives can pad their own pockets there's more of what's going on from top. the war between the financial elites and the rest of us is picking up steam and nowhere is this more evident than the downright theft that's going on in workplaces across america right now the latest robbery comes in the form of getting rid of defined benefit pensions as numbers out of the bureau of labor statistics show define bent on the benefit retirement pensions are on a drastic decline since one nine hundred eighty one when ronald reagan took office that was the year when over eighty percent of full time workers in the private sector participated in a pension plan by nine hundred ninety seven that number and followed it just over fifty percent and by two thousand and eleven looking at all workers in all private businesses in america fewer than twenty percent of workers have some sort of pension retirement plan this creates massive economic insecurity for seniors

especially now that republicans in the house are trying to hand over social security and medicare to wall street and it adds to the growing list of things that corporate america in its quest for higher and higher profits is taking from their workers in recent months we've seen employers promise to cut hours to avoid providing health insurance a wendy's franchise owner and a lot of brassica for example the latest corporate overlord to promise to cut his workers hours rather than comply with the new obamacare mandate that requires businesses to provide health insurance to their full time employees he follows in the footsteps of a new york applebee's franchise owner who promised to do the same as well as the owners of papa john's olive garden and red lobster we've also seen the right to free political speech take it away as business owners for murray energy to koch industries to westgate resorts intimidated their employees and warn that a vote for obama may end up costing them their jobs they've already taken our vacation and our time off united states is the only developed nation in the world

that doesn't guarantee paid holidays annual leave or paid maternity leave it taken away our sense of safety in the workplace safety laws and regulations are continually getting watered down that they've even taken our money by flattening out. wages during a time of increasing productivity at a new hampshire republicans are doing the bidding of corporate america get rid of our lunch breaks this is nothing short of theft and pretty soon we'll be handing over the shirts on our backs just so our bosses can squeeze out whatever profits they can it's also symptomatic of a larger war being waged on not just working people but entire cities and even our federal government by the financial elite. coming up after the break richard nixon made an enemies list in the one nine hundred seventy s. and since then it's been pretty much regarded as a bad idea to do those sort of things yet one organization that's been in the media a lot lately in making a run for richard nixon esque poll numbers is doing exactly that make me an enemies list i'll tell you what that organization is and who is found their way on to this

enemy's list and tonight still is that. he.

will be the. technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia. the future covered. let me let me as one would let me ask you a question. here on this network is what we're having a debate we have our knives out. is this right to the space station mir to get here and this is the way we're being i don't want to talk about the name and we.

now it's time for tonight's the good the bad in the very very try purity here asleep. the good chris wallace rarely will in a car on fox so called news question the motives of the n.r.a. let alone completely tear the gun lobby organization a new one. but that's exactly what happened on fox news sunday as acre chris wallace repeatedly attacked n.r.a. president wayne la pierre over his organ a organizations absurd claims and policy stances here's a clip from the interview. a couple of weeks ago the n.r.a. started running an ad that created a great deal of controversy mr la pierre do you regret putting up that ad the point of that ad was this one taken on the president's kids the president if you'd mentions the president's kids are safe and we're all thankful for it the point of their face a threat that most children do not face and tell that the people in newtown tell have to be you really think that the president's children are the same kind of

target as every school child in america i think that's ridiculous and you know it's you know it well this later went on to make the point that armed security guards in the schools wouldn't prevent children from being caught killed at places like shopping malls or movie theaters and so on so kudos to chris wallace maybe he's starting to get it the n.r.a. is an organization to be feared it's an organization to be mocked the bad texas governor. rick perry speaking to reporters on saturday perry defended the boy scouts of america's current policy discriminating against homosexuals perry told reporters that quote i think most people see absolutely no reason to change the position and neither do what popular culture impact one hundred years of their standards is inappropriate well first of all homosexuality is not a popular culture it's a sexual orientation that someone is born with and even a lot of animals are born with it too but perry could have made the same exact argument he just made he could've made it against interracial marriage or

desegregation or slavery in fact he likely would have if you were born back. now the very very ugly mean lou barletta the pennsylvania republican was on a.b.c.'s this week sunday debating gun control with economist paul krugman on the show barletta deflected any talk about new gun regulations instead opting for a new mental health laws and dealing with our violent culture even made a stunning comparison take a look. at the gun and dealing with mental health and our culture is our cultural lending itself that we're raising children that are desensitized to murder and his two killing a lot at the end a lot of differences and countries that have affected can have a lot of the you were winning to stop obesity of course not. the fact is don't kill people guns kill more than ten thousand people in america every year but

someone bought out by the gun industry like congressman barletta you want to understand that and that is very very ugly. so here's a question for you. what do geraldo rivera richard dreyfus and jerry seinfeld all have in common but yet what do those three men have in common with musicians like barry manilow staying in boys to men i mean what could possibly bring all of these musicians actors comedians and news anchors together what is the one thing they all have in common anyone frank do you know no well the answer is they they all made it on to one organizations anime's list they are all

enemies of the n.r.a. that's right if you go on the internet his web site you'll find what can only be best described as an enemy's list and just when you thought the n.r.a. and its foaming at the mouth leader way la pierre couldn't get more frightening up this enemy's list is comprised of individuals it's comprised of organizations they've all quote monetary grassroots or some other type of direct support to an anti-gun organization and ironically the list is made up mostly of those people in our community who are on the front lines of gun violence those people that are responding to it every day treating gun violence every day and tragically have been victims of gun violence far too often this list includes medical organizations like the american medical association and the american nurses association the list also includes educators like the american federation of teachers and the national education association law enforcement groups tasked with patrolling gun violence also made the list like the national association of police organizations so too

have religious organizations and even musicians and actors like the people i mentioned earlier jerry seinfeld barry manilow and geraldo rivera some others have made the list britney spears the former olympian tara lipinski former n.f.l. receiver keyshawn johnson double zero seven himself sean connery danny de vito captain picard patrick stewart and our favorite t.v. president martin sheen from the west wing. yep all together there are over five hundred names in organizations that have made their way on to the n.r.a. as enemies list and it's unclear exactly how you get your name off the list once you end up on it though i'm sure a lot of those people on the list wear it as a badge of honor i know i would but just that fact that a list exists an enemy's list richard nixon shows just how crazy the leadership in the n.r.a. have gotten just how much they've let paranoia and greed consume it i mean shit

another reason out of many why we should stop listening to any of their arguments or any of their ideas they've officially crossed the line into the dangers road and that is the subject of tonight's daily take. if we listen away in la pierre and the n.r.a. and the rest of the gun nuts on the far right about how to make our schools safer from gun violence and actually pass legislation they've supported that a typical school day would look something like this to begin with all those gun free zone signs be taken down there a place with signs that read gun friendly zone the simple change immediately alerts would be suicidal maniacs that this is their place. the n.r.a. school shield program fully implemented schoolchildren will walk on to campus past rows of armed security guards at first the big men in body armor with powerful something automatic assault rifles might be

a little frightening to kindergartners first and second graders but eventually the kids are going to get used to these bushmaster toting sentinels understanding that this posse of guards is the first line of defense keeping them safe while they learn their a.b.c.'s case arizona sheriff joe arpaio is armed posse because a few members actually have criminal backgrounds to be extra kenyan their insight into how the criminal mind works and how to stop potential mass shooters inside the school faculty with locks on their belts rushed kids along to first period before the morning bell rings first graders don't want to be late to first period is the new law requires them to take one training classes. school begins in their teacher also armed with a gun as is our custom made tiny shooters to all the kids they were not allowed to go and how to aim how to shoot for the kill zone they have to do this because just in case a bad guy with

a gun takes out the security guard then the armed faculty than the armed teacher it'll be up to a class around seventy seven year old good guys with guns to take him out as you can see the n.r.a. has masterfully put in place layers and layers of security school. then the second period math class begins mr griswold was up late the night before grading papers in arguing with his wife about their personal finances he's also dealing with impotence issues but its goal he feels much more masculine with a log six shooter in his pocket he gives his students their lesson plan but endless chatter in the back of the classroom distracts it so i pulls his gun out of his pocket. sets it on the desk. students get the point. media quiet. but they all feel safe knowing that mr griggs walt is their guardian angel for the next forty five minutes with us. and between second and third period news spreads

that biology teacher mr duncan accidentally shot himself through the palm of his and he was using the butt of his pistol to try and kill a cockroach when the gun went off you'll be ok though these kind of things happen the whole time during lunchtime little zack and philip got into a shoving match over a game of four square school administrators rushed to the scene with their guns drawn just in case and zach and philip realized that they were surrounded with weapons pointed at them they backed away from each other slowly the disturbances resolved in the school is once again safe. quiet peaceful unfortunately the school library there was another incident to high school seniors got into a scuffle over a cheerleader one was flirting with being eighteen years old in the us legally allowed to carry their own handguns on campus one of the students pulled out his gun to stand his ground and protect himself from a punch in the head by the guy by the other guy it fires wildly around the library

the other student returns fire there are both hit by bullets so two or three innocent bystanders luckily no one is killed but the ambulances have to take five kids to the hospital but hey all those new medical bills to help increase the g.d.p. . but just imagine how much worse it would be if those kids weren't armed and another adam lanza walked into that library. just after fifth period begins a five year old kindergartener billy takes a bathroom break is not old enough for the gun safety training class in first grade so when he sees a gun on the bathroom sink left behind by one of the school security guards yeah that happened in michigan last week immediately picks it up and starts to play with it which is like as n.r.a. sponsored a ar fifteen shaped tin lunch box that he brings to school every morning he waves it around points of this phrase is the director didn't know the gun was loaded cocked in response to the tragedy the n.r.a.

and the school worked together on a solution to prevent this from happening again they decide the best thing to do is to start gun training classes at a younger age he was seven after all so that kindergartners can get involved to. seventh period begins and the school children are eager to go home to the gun toting teachers and faculty have rather frayed nerves by this point they're ready for a break to american history class but the students can't watch any films about the civil war vietnam or iraq or afghanistan or even world war two we can't learn from that stuff because the n.r.a. has told us that those violent films could potentially trigger violent attitudes in class also all images of violence have been removed from the textbooks. necessary to keep the kids safe. finally the bell rings and everybody rushes out of the school past the armed guards and into the welcoming arms of their armed parents it

was safe day at school as not a single madman was able to carry out a mass murder when third grader jimmy gets the school bus he rushes into his mom's arms she asks him what happened at school today he tells her about mr duncan's wounded and in the five people shot the librarian what happened for a little billy who shot himself the face of the boy's bathroom but she hugs your song tight knowing that he's the n.r.a. wayne la pierre and the school's cache of guns did their job keeping mass shooters at bay for the day and isn't that what's most important. that's the way it is tonight monday february fourth two thousand and thirteen for more information check out our website at thom hartmann dot com free speech org r t dot com and hulu dot com slash the big picture. as tom always says go for it for marcus it begins with you get out there get active. your

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